Wizards Beat AC St. Louis

Playing without four starters from last week's season opener against DC (Davy Arnaud, Stephane Auvray, Ryan Smith, and Josh Wolff) the Wizards traveled to St. Louis to take on AC St. Louis in the second leg of their home and home series last night. With those 4 out, starts were given to Teal Bunbury, Zoltan Hercegfalvi, Santiago Hirsig, and Craig Rocastle. KC started the game out the same way they did against St. Louis in KC, dominating possession, but unable to really get many good chances on goal against Alec Dufty. KC broke through in the 31st minute, when Hercegfalvi intercepted a poor back past to Dufty and finished past two St. Louis defenders on the goal line to give KC the lead. KC continued to have the better of the chances, but St. Louis also showed more going forward than they had in the teams' previous game against each other.

In the second half, St. Louis started to get more possession and get deeper into KC's territory, but were unable to get off any real chances. In the 53rd minute, Wizards goalkeeper, Jimmy Nielsen was judged to have fouled a ACSTL player in the box giving them a PK. Nielsen guessed the right way, but the PK was well placed by Elvir Kafedzic into the corner to tie the game at 1-1. Shortly after the PK, the worst happened for the Wizards, and that was Hercegfalvi going down with what looked like a serious knee injury. He stayed on the field for a few minutes before being stretchered off the field. Even then he sat on the sidelines on the stretcher for a few more minutes before being carried to the locker room. Definitely not what KC wanted in this game. After the injury, the Wizards seemed to down shift a little bit more than they had before. They were still controlling much of the game, but you could tell they were also trying to avoid more injuries at the same time. KC grabbed what was probably a deserved winner late in the second half. Kei Kamara got fouled on the right wing, setting up a free kick that Rocastle put into the near post. Hirsig was the first one to reach the ball and just got a touch on it to put it past Dufty at the near post and give KC the 2-1 lead. Overall, a decent performance, not the solid performance of last week, but with 4 players I'd consider major game changers not on the field, I'll take the friendly win and the 4-1 aggregate score against St. Louis.

Wizards Man of the Match - Kei Kamara - Even though he was carrying an injury, he was a force down the right wing for KC, he gave St. Louis problems all game and won the free kick that led to the game winning goal. A solid performance from Kamara.

Honorable Mention - Michael Harrington

Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Harrington 7, Conrad 6, Besler 6, Espinoza 5, Rocastle 6, Hirsig 7, Jewsbury 6, Kamara 7, Bunbury 5, Zoltan 6. Subs Aiyegbusi 5, Escobar 6, Zusi 5.